If you have had your smart for at least one year, then the chances are that you have had something that needed tweaking or replacing.
Looking at various smart forums on the net, it seems like a good idea to have a decent "Problem/Answer" Frequently Asked Questions to help people understand what might have gone awry with their smart, and to let you find those little 'easter eggs' or tricks you can do.

Starting with what appears to be the most common at the top -

1) Uneven/lunging acceleration whilst driving your smart:
Whilst accelerating in your smart, you can feel it randomly accelerate more/less as you go through the Rev. range.
Chances are that you have a cracked manifold. Exhaust gasses will be escaping out of the manifold before going through the turbo drive blades (bolted to the side of the manifold) giving you a loss of engine power.
If your car is still under warranty, then you should be able to get it replaced free of charge. If not, then this is going to set you back a few hundered quid, unless you know a good welder.

Now, smart/DCUK have said that this fault is very rare. But given the sheer amount of people on messageboards explaining symptoms on their cars (and eventually tracing it to their manifold) suggests that it is in fact, a design flaw in the manifold itself.

In later (Oct 2002/Mk.6 and above) smarts, the manifold has been re-enforced and you can tell if you have a newer 'fixed' manifold if you can see a square bar accross the outlets from the engine, as shown in the photo to the right.



2) Frequent creaking/cracking sounds appearing to come from behind you when driving:
This usually happens when you have just had your new smart, or in dry weather.
The clips on the plastic windows at either side of the rear of your smart can start to 'rub' against each other as the cars body flexes (and it flexes quite a bit!). Making a rather unpleasant cracking sound.
If you can manage with that sound (I couldn't!) then you can ignore is without taking any action as nothing will wear away or become damaged.
If not then you can either take the car to your local smartcenter (where they will take the windows out and spray the clips with some lubricant), or you can do it yourself.
On the inside of your smart, at the bottom of each window, there are 2 grooves in the pastic retainer. These are seperate bits, and you can remove them with a little persuation.
After removing the clips from each window (1 per window) you can gently pull the inner black plastic retainer away from the metail frame towards the centre of the window. Once you have done this you will then be in a position to remove the actual window itself.
There is a plastic guide at the top side of the window. The window itself should pop out of place (it might be a little stuck in place at first) and you should see the guide. Remember to slot the window back into it when you're lubricating the clips.


3) Very occasional creaking sound coming from near front of smart, particularly when braking:
This is likely to be the front suspension. If it is, then the most likely causes are water ingres inside the plastic seals, or the fact that it has become slightly loose and needs tightening.
This fix is best done by your smartcentre.


4) Rattling sound when driving above 70mph:
First off, stop speeding. The smart is not designed to do high speeds and has all the aerodynamics of a rounded brick. You have been warned.
However, if you insist on driving too fast then the rattling sound will be the undertray of the car trying to remove itself from its fixings, or your side panels trying to do much of the same.
A little plastic/foam tape around the fixing slots and wherever the panel comes into contact with the car might do the trick here, but a more effective means is not to go above 70mph.


5) Car refuses(politely) to engage gear/reverse:
You could have gearbox problems here, or you might have forgotten that you need your foot on the *brake* when you change from Neutral to reverse/drive.
If you're doing all this and are still unable to change into gear then it is possible that the brake microswitch (that detects if you have your foot on the brake) has become faulty/broken. This will be a replacement part from your local smartcentre who will either fit it for you, or give you instructions on how to fit the switch yourself.


6) Summer problems, engine overheating:
If your temperature gauge gets into the state where all 5 of the red dots are flashing, then turn your engine off immediately and allow it to cool. Once cooled (and assuming you made it back home without further incident) then check the engine coolant levels, as they may be depleted.
Also, check that the intercooler fan in the engine bay can rotate freely. (it should be a slightly stiff, but easy to turn with your little finger). If it is excessively stiff then the brushes may need lubricating or replacing.
Also, now would be a good time to check all the fuses in your fusebox are ok.


7) Left side of engine bay is covered in a thin layer of oil:
If you have a dump valve installed, then you can expect this. Either using a piston, or diaphram dump valve type will yeild exactly the same results - Oil everywhere.
If left unchecked then you will have an oil buildup in the engine bay which can potentially CATCH FIRE. Obviously this is very bad for your (mostly plastic) smart and regular cleaning/mopping up is a must
The engine bay is not a cool place for flammable things like oil.
Keeping the oil levels mid to low in your car will help slow the expulsion of oil from the valve, however this will require careful monitoring of your oil level as smartcars can go through oil like a sieve.
Also if you have a dump valve, then you probably drive the car hard. Make sure to change your oil and filter twice as regularly as it states in the service manual.


8) Help! my smart sounds like a VW Beetle! / There is a shrill chirping sound coming from the engine bay:
Your manifold is either missing a big bit (see cracks above), or the screws have become loose allowing your manifold to separate from the rest of the engine body and gasses to escape.
You will probably find that the annoying noise goes away after your engine has warmed up a little (about 3 minutes of driving).
All that is needed here if the bolts are loose is for you to tighten them up again.
Note: On some smart manifolds, the thread on one or more bolts has been *stripped* and this can happen at the factory when your smart was originally built. If this is the case, then you will need a professional to either re-tap the screw thread, or replace (by means of drilling into the engine slightly) the bolt entirely.


9) Passenger/driver window moves forwards/backwards as well as up/down:
One of the guide rails for the window may have snapped, or come loose. You will have to remove the side panel to fix this. If it has snapped, then it is best to let the smartcentre deal with the fix.


10) When accelerating, car suddenly decelerates/lunges, then total loss of engine power/engine continuously revs between about 1000 & 1700rpm.
This has happened to me. I don't know what it is, but it smells like detonation occoured in one of the cylinders. Fortunately it has only happened once and no damage appeared to have been done. To get going again I turned the engine off (as it didn't want to accelerate), started the car again, then carried on with my journey.
If this happens to you more than once, then call smartassist immediately and let them deal with, as engine damage is a high probability with this type of fault.


11) Very slow gearchanges
If you find the it takes an extended amount of time to change up or down a gear, then your clutch might be suffering from excessive wear. There is no easy fix for this and your smart will either require a clutch adjustment (done by smart quite quickly) or a replacement clutch will require to be installed (half a days work, if they get the part in on time).


12) Roof blind thingy slides forward/backward when I accelerate/brake
The sun blind on glass-roof'ed smarts can sometimes start to slide forwards and backwards during normal driving of your smart. This is an annoying distraction to say the least, and potentially a safety hazard as it distracts your attention whilst you drive.
What has happened is that the metal support bar which runs down the middle of the glass roof has become loose and requires tightening a few notches. You can verify this if you try and wiggle the middle of the bar. If it moves, then it needs tightening.
Your local smart-centre should be able to do this free of charge for you as it is a simple 5 minute adjustment.
If you prefer to do it yourself, then the adjuster for tightening the support is at the rear of your smart. You will need to take the top-rear plastic panel off (the one with the indoor light) and adjust it so it *pushes* the rod to make it bend more and thus push it against the glass roof.


13) Dropping the clutch
You can get the smartcar to drop the clutch at around 3000rpm for those 'quick starts'. You should only ever do this a couple of times per clutch as it really wears it down a lot, and puts extra stress on the gearbox.

To drop the clutch:
a) Turn the ignition key all the way to the start position with the engine already running. Don't worry, the starter motor will not engage the engine.
b) Rev the engine to around 3000rpm. Any higher, and the engine won't release the clutch.
c) Release the key (back to position 1), the clutch will be dropped and you will go forwards, faster.


There, that's covered most of the things I can think of. If you have any more then I'll be happy to add them!

This ends the unofficial smartcar FAQ. Remember, any work you do on your smart from following this FAQ is done at your OWN RISK!